Narendra Modi addresses USIBC Leadership Summit in Washington DC

Highlighting the potential of the U.S.-India strategic and commercial partnership, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed U.S.-India Business Council’s 41st Annual Leadership Summit on June 7, 2016 at Washington DC, according to an official statement.

At USIBC’s CEO Roundtable, Prime Minister Modi met CEOs from both the United States and India to get an update on the progress in the bilateral commercial relationship. Also joining the CEO Roundtable were the honorees for USIBC’s 2016 Global Leadership Awards: Jeff Bezos (CEO and Founder, Amazon) and Dilip Shanghvi (Founder and Managing Director, Sun Pharmaceuticals).

Speaking after the roundtable, USIBC Chairman John Chambers spoke on the substantial investment by USIBC members. “In September 2014, USIBC member companies indicated an investment number of $41 billion that was likely to be invested by members over a 2-3 year time period. Today, I am happy to announce that in less than two years, about 20 percent of USIBC member companies have already invested $28 billion. Over the next 2-3 years, we see this pace accelerating, again with about 20 percent of our member companies reporting, indicating that USIBC members are on track to invest an additional $45 billion, which is a conservative estimate. Given Prime Minister Modi’s track record towards implementing Digital India and key economic reforms, we are optimistic that this number will be dramatically exceeded, perhaps even doubled.”

USIBC President Mukesh Aghi said, “We are honored to have Prime Minister Modi address the Council’s 41st Anniversary Leadership Summit. Forty-five billion is a good starting point for American companies to invest in India and this number will only go up in the future. This will translate into increased technology transfers and job creation. We are excited to expand the potential opportunities attached to this relationship.”

USIBC Chairman John Chambers also delivered the State of the Council address. “Today we are witnessing a new phase in India’s growth story driven by the vision of Prime Minister Modi. I’ve had the opportunity to meet many government leaders around the world and I believe that Prime Minister Modi’s total approach in India – encompassing Digital India, skills, innovation and entrepreneurship – will ensure India remains the fastest growing economy over the next 5 years and provide inclusive growth, create new jobs and increase the standard of living for its citizens. Prime Minister Modi has rapidly become the model for not just the developing countries, but the entire world.”

During the Summit, USIBC also presented its Global Leadership Awards to Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon and Dilip Shanghvi, Founder and Managing Director of Sun Pharmaceuticals. Both were honored for their contributions and commitment to integrating India into the global economy.

“We have already created some 45,000 jobs in India and continue to see huge potential in the Indian economy,” said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “Our Amazon.in team is surpassing even our most ambitious planned milestones, and I’m pleased to announce today that we’ll invest an additional US $3 billion on top of the US $2 billion that we announced in 2014, bringing our total investment in India to over US $5 billion.”

“At Sun Pharma we are focused on offering quality medicines to all our customers and patients worldwide. Under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Modi, we see an environment of technology-led innovation in India. It will enable us to bring innovative products meeting unmet medical needs of patients globally,” said Dilip Shanghvi, who also received the Padma Shri honor this year.

Additional investment announcements from the summit were as follows:

· Star India, a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox, India’s leading Media and Entertainment company, announced it will invest an additional $5 billion over the next three years. “We see huge potential in the Indian market and have been one of the largest foreign investors in India and the largest in the media and entertainment sector,” said Uday Shankar, Chairman and CEO of Star India.

· In support of Indian government’s renewable energy goals on an accelerated timeline, SunLink Corporation is partnering with domestic Indian companies with a deployment target of 1.4GW over the next 5 years, helping stimulate domestic Indian manufacturing and construction jobs.

About U.S.-India Business Council:

Formed in 1975 at the request of the U.S. and Indian governments, the U.S.-India Business Council is the premier business advocacy organization, comprised of 400 top-tier U.S. and Indian companies advancing U.S.-India commercial ties. USIBC is the largest bilateral trade association in the United States, with liaison presence in New York, Silicon Valley, and New Delhi.